Decorations

• You can mix symbols of international travel like oceans, passports, maps and luggage using your decorations to help it look coherent. Use color themes for different countries; for example, red and green for Italy, yellow and blue for tropical locales, blue and white for Scandinavian countries, greens for Ireland, purple and gold for the Middle East, orange, red and green for Mexico, red, white and blue for the United Kingdom or United States, and red and gold for China. Coordinate streamers and balloons, and add a few specific decorations for each country. Paper lanterns or dragons symbolize China, while grapevines and red-checked tablecloths work for Italy. Use shamrocks for Ireland, tropical flowers and sun decorations for the tropics, or pyramids for Egypt.
  
  

Food

• To simplify the serving and preparing of food, if you are doing it yourself, you can choose one basic food with lots of add-ons that change it for different cultures. For instance, cook chicken strips or wings, but set out several kinds of sauces, such as plum, hot pepper, marinara, Bleu cheese, and sesame. Or, serve appetizers from each country so that guests get a chance at lots of different cuisines. Rangoons, samosas, nachos, shrimp dip, breadsticks or Scotch eggs all could represent different countries. You also can ask guests to bring dishes from a country of their choice for an international potluck.
  
  

Games

• A costume contest, letting guests choose a costume from any country they like, would be a great way to get everyone in the global spirit of the party. Be sure to have some prizes for best costume, as well as other contests for adults, like best travel story, worst travel disaster, best travel photo, or weirdest place visited. For kids, let them create their own country, have blank paper flags available to draw their own, and a fact sheet to fill out about their imaginary land, complete with national anthem, flower, bird, capital and language. Provide games from other cultures, like mancala or mah-jongg, and of course, you can send either children or adults on an age-appropriate scavenger hunt for international-themed items around the house or the whole town.